Leo or Lev Ni·ko·la·e·vich /lɛv ˌnɪkəˈlaɪəˌvɪtʃ; Russianˈlyɛf nyɪkʌˈlɑyɪvyɪtʃ/Show Spelled[lev nik-uh-lahy-uh-vich; Russianlyef nyi-kuh-lah-yi-vyich]Show IPA, Count, 1828–1910, Russian novelist and social critic.
Leo, Russian name Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. 1828--1910, Russian novelist, short-story writer, and philosopher; author of the two monumental novels War and Peace (1865--69) and Anna Karenina (1875--77). Following a spiritual crisis in 1879, he adopted a form of Christianity based on a doctrine of nonresistance to evil